All I Want For Christmas Is You Guitar Lesson & Play Along

All right, so this is the time of year that Mariah Carey thaws out of her ice cave and everyone starts singing All I Want For Christmas Is yous. It's a classic. Mariah makes tons of money off this song every year, and I'm going to show you how to play along with it on the guitar. Let's start off with our chords. As with many Christmas songs, we have a number of chords. The easier ones are going to be A, meyer, C, D, D7, E minor and G, the two more difficult ones. And this one comes into play more on the bridge section of the song is the B7 chord. And we are transitioning that in from a D chord and an E minor. So when we're coming from the E minor chord, I would recommend using your second and third fingers, because then you can just pivot down into the E. B7. All right, so see what I did there? E minor with second and third, ring finger comes down, pinky on the bottom string and then first finger in place. All right, that's the easiest way to do that. Transition e minor to B7, D to B7 is a little trickier. You really got to kind of rearrange your whole hand. So that's something. We're going to be transitioning from a verse into that bridge section that you might want to practice. Now, there is one bar chord. There is a C. C minor chord.

Okay.

C minor bar chord. It is played throughout the verses. All right, so if you need an easier version, first finger on the third fret of the first string, the second finger on the fourth fret of the B string, and then the third finger on the fifth fret of the G string. Okay. It's not going to sound the best, but it will get you through. If you're not very good at playing bar chords just yet. And when we do little playthrough sections, if you can play it, hey, you know, just count to four and play along with me as best as you can and work on that chord change. So let's start off with the intro to the song, which is really simple. It's just all single strums. Okay. And there are some timing issues here that we'll talk about. But first, let's just go through the progression. And if you want to follow along with the notes on my website, you can always go to laurenbateman.com I have a bunch of Christmas songs over there for you guys. So let's start off G. I Don't.

Want a lot for Christmas. Right. There is just one thing I need I don't care about the present Underneath.

The Christmas tree Now, I am not Mariah Carey, so promise I am not going to sing this the way she does it. So I will do my best, but it's definitely not in my vocal range. We got another gift.

I just want you for my own.

So that's the first timing change. So that B7 is a little bit rushed, but it changes right over the lyrics. So it's.

I just want you for my own More than you could ever know.

Make my wish come true.

All I want for Christmas is.

And then this is where we start strumming. Okay, so the whole intro is just single chords right over the lyrics. Gives you plenty of time to change in the chords, and then we're going to start strumming. The basis of the strumming pattern for this song is going to be down, down, up, up, down, up, one, two, and. And four, and. Okay. But it is not a straight strumming pattern. It's more of a hopped pattern. Okay, and let's talk about that right now. Let's just do it as a straight. Down, down, up, up, down, up, down, down, up, up, down, up. Okay, be 1, 2 and M4. And 1, 2 and M4. And 1, 2, and M4, M. And this will work fine.

I don't want a lot for Christmas There is just one thing I need I don't care about the presents Underneath.

The Christmas tree but it has a lot more pop to it. This is a pop song. There's a lot more pop to it when we swing the rhythm. Okay? So it's going to be down, down, up, up, down, up, down, down, up, up, down, up, down, down, up, up, down, up.

So you're like, oh, what's the difference? All right, just listen very quickly. Here is the straight rhythm.

Now here's the.

So all it is is it just has a little bit of, like, a shuffle to it. Okay. Just a little bit of a hop in the rhythm. Down, down, up, up, down, up down, down, up, up, down, up, down, down, up, up, down, up, down, down, up, up, down, up. Okay, so that's the strumming pattern we're going to be using throughout the entire song. So, you know, the end of that verse is where we start strumming.

You, you, baby.

Okay? And then we jump right into the verse. So if we look at this verse, it starts out very simply. Lots of G. Okay. And then there's C and C minor. All these chords are full measures. That's great. And we get to play them for multiple measures. But you're going to notice a little bit down the page, There is a split measure of G&B7, and there's also a split measure of E minor and C minor. Now, if you remember from the intro, remember I said that B minor was a little bit rushed.

We.

Well, what we're going to do on these split measures is we're going to split the rhythm. Okay? So instead of going down, down, up, up, down, up for the entire chord, we're going to be going, G is going to be down, down. And then the up is going to be B7. So it's going to kind of feel a little rushed. Okay. So it's going to be down, down, up, down, down, up. Okay. And then up, down, up on that B7 chord. And then the E minor and C minor, same thing. Down, down, up, up, down, up. Okay. Down, down, up, up, down, up. So if I just take just that.

Line, I just want to form out more than.

Yep.

More than you could ever know.

So you can see the rush, that anticipation is built into the strum on these split measures. We did it a little bit on the intro, but now you're seeing it come into play on the strumming here in the verse section. So let's take one of these verses, okay. Because they do just repeat each other. And then we'll talk about the bridge section next. All right, so let's take it from Make My wish come true. All I want from Christmas is you. And then we'll start strumming. So we got make my wish come true.

All I want for Christmas is you.

Oh, baby well, I don't want a lot for Christmas There is just one thing I need I don't care about the presents Underneath the Christmas tree and I don't need to hang my stockings upon the fireplace Santa Claus won't make me happy With a toy on Christmas day I just want you for my More than you could ever know make my wish come true All I want for Christmas is you.

You, baby oh, I won't ask you.

And then you just repeat the same thing for the next verse. Now, you probably saw I lost my place and I didn't know what chord I was on. And for a split second, might have been the E or it might have been the A minor. For a split second, I had some of my fingers on the chord and some not. Okay. So if you're playing and you know, because this is a peppy song, so those chord changes have to be a little bit quicker and you get to A chord and you're not quite fully there. Do not stop playing. Keep the strumming going. Fix the corners. You go and keep going. Because if you stop, everyone's gonna know you made a mistake. If you keep going, it kind of blends in a little bit more. And you learn a lot by playing through mistakes, too. I've been playing guitar for a long time, and I still make mistakes, even on simple songs. All right, so let's take a look at our bridge section. All right, so this is where there's. There's a big change in terms of the music. And we're starting on that B7, okay? So we're going to keep the strum the same. It's just the chords are changing a bit. We got double B7, double E minor, double B7, E minor, and then we have our C minor. But of course, it's all just regular chords. Okay. In terms of. There's no split measures. It's all full measures. And if we just keep that same strumming pattern, it's going to sound like this. 1, 2, 1, 2. Ready?

M all the lights are shining so brightly everywhere.

And the sound of children laugh that fills the air.

And everyone is singing I hear the sleigh bells ring I said I want to bring me the one I really need Please bring home my favorite to me I'm.

Definitely not hitting that note.

Mariah's got much wider range than I do, but you can see, see, it's just basically that nice little simple strumming pattern. And then we wrap up on the final verse. And the only thing I have to say about the final verse is just the outro is all I want for Christmas.

So it just stays on that G minor, E minor, A minor, D pattern all the way out, okay? But it still has the split measures like we did on the other verse. And it's all basically the same. So it's a bunch of verses and it's a bridge section, but once you learn one verse, you learn to play them all. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to do a quick playthrough from the top. Again, I apologize for my voice. It's not Mariah, but we'll at least be able to play through the song from the beginning to the end. So here we go. One, two, one, two. Here we go.

I don't want a lot for Christmas There is just one thing I need I don't care about the present Underneath the Christmas tree I just want you for my own More than you could ever know.

Make my wish come true.

All I want for Christmas is you.

Oh baby I don't want love for Christmas There is just one thing I need I don't care about the present underneath the Christmas tree and I don't need to hang my stockings there upon the fireplace Santa Claus will make me happy with a toy on Christmas day I just want you for my own More than you will ever know make my wish come true. All I want for Christmas is you.

Oh baby well I won't ask for much this Christmas I won't even wish more snow I'm just gonna keep on waiting underneath the mistletoe and I won't make a list and send it to the no fool say Nick I won't even stay awake and hear those magic reindeer clicks Cuz I just want you here tonight holding on to me so tight what more can I do?

All I want for Christmas is you. Oh yeah. Here comes the bridge room. All the lights are shining so brightly everywhere.

And the sound of children's laugh that fills the air.

When everyone is singing I hear those sleigh bells ring Saying I want you please When I want to really want you here Spring on my baby sing of me I don't want love for Christmas this is all I'm asking for Cuz I can just see my baby standing right outside my door well I just want you for my More than you could ever know make my wish come true. All I want for Christmas Christmas is you.

Baby All I want for Christmas is you baby. All I want for Christmas you baby. All I want for Christmas you baby.

So there you have it. I hope you enjoyed playing along with me to this song. And if you're looking for more fun Christmas songs this holiday season, I have an entire playlist right over there of other great Christmas songs that you can learn today. Go check that out and I'll see you in another lesson real soon.